The Lodinium
by CourtingInsanity
Summary: Draco and Hermione are on a mission to recover the elusive Lodinium, a special rock used to power weapons and spacecrafts. Sci-Fi AU! Drabble written for Troping Thursdays (19/04/18) in Dramione Fanfiction Writers on Facebook.


**Roses are red**

 **Violets are blue**

 **I don't own Harry Potter**

 **This is sad, but true**

 _ **It's Troping Thursday over in the Dramione Fanfiction Writers Facebook Group, and today's trope is SCI-FI! Here's my take on a Sci-Fi Dramione.**_

 _ **Enjoy! :D**_

* * *

Two figures stood in the middle of the wasteland, inches from where the last fallen soldier lay.

"Is he…is he dead?" The brunette woman asked.

"His entrails are decorating the front of the ship, so I'd say he's pretty dead, Granger." The blond man lifted a leg elegantly over the body, and his companion stumbled behind him.

The ground was a sea of rotting corpses covering a thick layer of brown sludge. Their boots squelched in the frothing mixture of blood and mud as they moved towards a thicket of trees.

"Are you sure they'd leave something as valuable as the Lodinium on a planet like this?" The brunette wondered out loud.

Her blond accomplice snorted and quickly stepped to the right to avoid stepping in the open abdomen of a days-old human carcass.

"For the brightest Wanderer of our age, you really are quite thick sometimes."

"If I had a dollar for every time you've said that, Malfoy, I'd be richer than your slimy father."

The blond chuckled. "If you wanted to hide something so that no one would ever find it, where would you keep it?"

The brunette frowned. "I don't know," she said slowly. "Somewhere no one would go looking for it, I suppose."

"Exactly!" His voice echoed around the open space and then faded into nothing. "You wouldn't hide it in an obvious place, with wards and guards and concealment; you'd put it in the most disgusting, filthy place imaginable," he threw his arms wide but he did not break his stride, "and place it…" he grunted as he clambered over a pile of fallen debris and dropped to the other side, "in plain sight."

When she joined him, he was standing in the middle of what had once been a small amphitheatre, surrounded by dead, grey trees. His right hand was resting gently on top of a jagged piece of stone placed in the centre of the space, and on top of it sat the Lodinium. It was a simple green rock which glowed and vibrated, hovering inches above the makeshift table.

"Ta da!" he cried triumphantly and fell in to a graceful bow.

"Wow," she breathed. She inched forwards until she stood in front of Malfoy and the Lodinium. "It's beautiful."

"Of course it is," he rolled his eyes and began digging around in his backpack. "Now just don't touch it until I can find my – "

 _Screeeeeech!_

"Oops!"

"OOPS?" Malfoy sprang to his feet, his backpack open on the ground. Thunderous footsteps were trampling through the sparse woods, and a large creature with scaly hind legs and a feathery head was making its way towards them. "I told you not to touch it!"

"I'm sorry!" Granger fell to the ground as the creature descended. Malfoy swung his arm to keep it away from the Lodinium.

"Just – do – some – thing!"

Granger army crawled on her belly, the stench of the dead, rotting ground burning her nostrils and making her eyes water. She gagged as she pulled herself back into a sitting position, Malfoy's bag open in her lap.

"I can't – find – anything!" She stuck her arm in up to her shoulder, her hand flailing helplessly around inside the silk-lined backpack.

"It's arranged in alphabetical order, according to likelihood of need for each mission!" Malfoy called over the screeches.

"As if that helps me!"

"Just – go to the right!"

"There's nothing here!"

"FURTHER RIGHT!"

"I don't feel – AHA!" Granger's hand enclosed around something long and cold. She pulled hard and a metal tube fell between her legs.

"Give it!" Malfoy ducked down and grabbed it. In one fluid movement he rose back up, swung the instrument up over his head, and then back down until it connected with the neck of the creature currently trying to disembowel him. With a wet, squelching noise, its head fell to the ground.

"Yuck," Malfoy screwed up his face as the headless body flailed once, twice, and then fell silent. Deep green goo bubbled from the wound, but the creature moved no more.

"Phew!" Granger pretended to wipe the sweat from her brow.

Malfoy's eyes narrowed. "Just don't touch anything else, okay?"

Granger did not reply, but huffed as Malfoy set about looking through his bag again.

"See, Granger, it's not that difficult to work out," he murmured as he rummaged. "I have my assault weapons, various books, and here – my collection instruments." He pulled his arm from the bag, revealing a round crystal bowl with a lid.

"Helpful," Granger rolled her eyes. "And how are you going to get the Lodinium into the bowl without touching it? That…whatever it was…probably has friends."

"These!" Malfoy held up his other hand triumphantly. "Protective gear – gloves."

Granger folded her arms across her chest, but he caught her smirk and knew that she was impressed, despite her best efforts at concealing it.

"Come on; let's get this done so that we can go home."

Malfoy donned the gloves and reached forward to pick up the Lodinium; it buzzed gently in his palm. He placed it carefully in the crystal bowl, and screwed the lid on tight.

"You can say it," he grinned after he'd alphabetically organised the Lodinium deep within his backpack. "I am amazing."

Granger snorted derisively and hitched her own backpack higher on to her shoulder. Their ship was in sight now as they made their way across the silent battlefield.

"If your head gets any bigger, you'll need a whole new backpack, Malfoy."

His grinned widened as he began to mount the stairs of the ship. "It won't kill you to admit it, Granger."

"It might," the brunette bit back as she settled herself in the driver's seat and adjusted the belt.

He chuckled, a deep, warm sound.

"Suit yourself." He shrugged, noting the way his companion's lips twitched upwards in the ghost of a smile.

She'd admit it one day; he would make sure of it.


End file.
